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Greg Johnson: Praying and holding on for Chapman Highway improvements

Published 3:00 a.m. ET April 27, 2016

Traffic accidents have been so prevalent on Chapman Highway that Seymour attorneys advertise on the roadside at the corner of Chapman and Sevierville Pike. (GREG JOHNSON/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS SENTINEL)

The billboard shows the crumpled front end of a red sedan and gives the phone number for "Seymour's Own Law Firm."

The sign is appropriately placed, less than a mile from Simpson Road, which merges dangerously with Chapman.

Waiting in traffic — between cars and a freight train — a Simpson Road resident said at the TDOT meeting, "I can't count the times I've just said a prayer and held on."

TDOT regional director Steve Borden laid out the grisly statistics behind TDOT's plan to widen Chapman between Simpson to the south and Hendron Chapel Road to the north. Borden said the one-mile stretch of Chapman to be renovated has seen five fatalities and 245 crashes with injuries over the past 10 years.

The dangers of Chapman are not news. A 2012 story by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, ranked Chapman the most dangerous highway in East Tennessee, citing Tennessee Highway Patrol data that showed 24 fatalities from 2008 to 2010 on the whole of Chapman between Knoxville and Sevierville. Although TDOT plans other improvements to Chapman, road officials don't think they will be enough.

"The James White Parkway Extension project was developed in part to address safety and congestion issues along Chapman Highway," TDOT Commissioner John Schroer wrote in 2014. "TDOT remains concerned that our efforts to improve conditions along Chapman Highway will not be sufficient now, and particularly in the future."

A regional transportation board killed the extension after a motion by Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero. Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters voted to extend. Rogero cited costs and a lower traffic count on Chapman as her reasons for killing the new route, but her prime concern was the James White Parkway Extension would hurt the interesting but uncongested South Knoxville Urban Wilderness.

The extension would have touched only the edge of the Urban Wilderness, inconveniencing dozens. According to Rogero's own data, more than 28,000 vehicles travel Chapman daily, making trip totals more than 10 million per year —and producing plenty of potential clients for those advertising attorneys.

Read or Share this story: https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/columnists/greg-johnson/2016/04/27/greg-johnson-praying-and-holding-on-for-chapman-highway-improvements/90900492/